Posts Tagged ‘job’

I recently decided to quit my job, move to a tropical island, and start my own business. You can read the full story here. While I actually came to this decision quite easily, it required getting rid of the majority of my stuff and relocating my entire life. However, due to my financial situation this was actually quite easy to do and going through this process has really taught me what financial freedom means. There are a lot of books (several of which I have read myself) and sophisticated methods out there to tell you how to get out of debt and become financially free. After successfully creating my own financial freedom, I can honestly say it’s not that difficult. It just takes a good plan and some perseverance.

The Method

The first thing you need to do is honestly evaluate your situation. If you are deep in debt, don’t pretend that things are going well. This won’t help you get out of the situation. Add up your debt and bills and also figure out how much you bring in. You need to figure out how much is going in verse how much is going out.

The goal is to put as much into savings as possible. However, you must first pay off your debt. To pay off your debt, you must first free up some of your funds by reducing your spending. Look at your bills and find what you can go without. It may not always be the large things. Do you drink coffee everyday? That right there can add up to more than $20 a week or more. Also consider things such as cable or satellite TV, reducing your cell phone bill, buying store brands, eating or drinking out less, and of course driving less. These things may seem small, but when added up they can become several hundreds of dollars a month.

The next step is to look at the bigger items that you are purchasing. Whether it is clothes, electronics, DVDs, or anything else you might lay your eyes on. You must learn to realize that you can live without it. It is very difficult at first, but if you can do it for a while it gets much easier. One thing I have found that helps me is think that I have a very limited space and that I will soon be moving. Another is to keep yourself busy with other activities. And of course, don’t tempt yourself by going window shopping.

Now that you have lowered your expenses and freed up some cash, the next step is too put that money to paying off your debt. Start with the highest interest rates and work your way down from there. The quicker you pay it off the more money you save.

Now that you have paid off your debt, you will the original payments you were making each month plus the extra you were paying towards your debt by reducing your bills. This can now all go towards savings. I give my self a spending allowance each month. I take it out at the beginning of each month to make sure that I am not tempted to spend more. At first this amount was my spending allowance only. The food I used for lunch was a separate amount. I then decided that I could cut back my spending to include my lunch in my spending allowance as well. This allowed another $200 a month to go to savings.

The Results

After a year and a half of this program, I was able to save enough money to have a strong amount of savings in one account towards retirement, and also enough money in another account to quite my job and move to a tropical island and start my own business. Figuring the costs of expenses, I will be able to live for more than a year without any income at all without touching the money in the first savings account. I am by no means rich, but it is the first time in my life, where I can really think about what I want to do and not have to worry about paying my next months rent and bills.

Most people view obtaining wealth and riches as the final goal in life. They feel that if they can get more money then they will be happier and have a more fulfilling life. That with a little extra money the worries will start to disappear and with a lot of money the worries will be gone. i don’t think this is the case. it all depends on how you view wealth and riches.

To me, wealth means freedom. As Robert Kiyosaki discussed in Rich Dad Poor Dad, wealth is measured in time. It is how long you can maintain the lifestyle you want without having to work. I agree with this. Working 40 hours a week, even if you like your job, takes away your freedom.

However, you don’t have to have a lot of money to be wealthy. You can also obtain wealth by reducing your costs and spending. The lower your average cost of living, and the greater your savings, the longer you can live wealthy outside of work. For Example, someone who makes $30,000 a year, and only has an average monthly cost of living (including expenses and spending income) of $1,500 would accumulate an average of 8 months of wealth (8 months maintaining current life style without working) each year. Someone earning $70,000 a year with an average monthly costs of $4000 would only accumulate an average wealth of 5.5 months after one year of working.

$1,500 X 12 months=$18,000 $30,000-$18,000=$12,000 $12,000/$1,500=8 Months

$4,000 X 12 months=$48,000 $70,000-$48,000=$22,000 $22,000/$4,000=5.5 Months

One of the biggest reasons why people never seem to be able to get a head is because there spending increases in proportion (or more) with their increase in earnings. When they get a raise, they buy a more expensive car, a bigger house, a bigger tv, get satellite, and eat out more often at expensive restaurants. No I am not saying that you should save every penny and give up having any fun. What I am recommending is that you decrease your spending overall, and never let your living costs increase by a larger or equal percentage than your increases in salary.

In part two I will cover 5 easy ways to increase your wealth and savings.